PET Planet

The Brighter Future for PET Recycling

From Petcore's PETPlanet Column - Vols 1&2 2010
www.petpla.net
Post-consumer recycling of PET containers is gaining momentum. As the industry looks increasingly towards the opportunities for a cradle-to-cradle system, where containers are recycled back into new PET containers rather into other PET products, we need to consider the long-term effects of multiple recycles on the quality of final container aesthetics.
 
Increasing volumes of containers entering the recycle stream already contain significant proportions of recycled material. The result of this current “success” in recycling is, however, likely to have a negative impact on the long term aesthetic quality of PET containers as the quality of resin potentially deteriorates with each recycle trip.

11 & 12 2009 The Continuing Truth about PET

PET is a wonderful packaging material! 
 
PET is strong, lightweight and is still improving its recycling track record. Last month Petcore announced thatEuropean post-sorting PET collection reached 1.26m tonnes in 2008 (an increase of more than 11% on 2007) and that the overall collection rate rose by nearly 5%, from over 41% to 46% of all PET bottles on the market.
 
In its everyday form PET packaging provides an excellent b

10 2009 European PET Recycling Success

At the time of writing Petcore is waiting for the final statistics on PET collection in Europe for 2008

09 2009 PLAand its Threat to the European PET Recycle Industry

It is less than a year since Petcore last made PLA the subject of its PETPlanet Column but the issues raised by our US counterpart, NAPCOR, in their press release[1] of 24 July are just as relevant in a European context.
 
PLA producers are investing a lot of effort on both sides of the Atlantic to “prove” that PLA bottles can be included with the PET col

08 2009 Bottled Water

At the end of June in the UK Thames Water’s “London On Tap” was presented with the UK’s most influential, independent, peer-assessed corporate responsibility award, the Proctor & Gamble ‘Big Tick’ for Responsible Marketing. This was awarded to Thames Water for its campaign’s positive impact on the community, environment and marketplace. The UK Drinking Water Inspectorate is also expected to rate Thames tap water at 99.99% compliant with stringent National and European standards. David Owens, chief executive of Tha

07 2009 The REACH Pre-Registration is Over – What Now?

To ensure that companies meet the first substance registration deadline of November 10 2010 under REACH it is important that the Substance Information Exchange Forums (SIEFs) are formed promptly.
 
The idea behind SIEFs is that companies planning to register the same substance share information to avoid duplication of studies and agree on classification and labelling as appropriate. Joining a SIEF is a legal obligation for all registrants.

06 2009 Recycled PET in Food Contact Applications

As the collection and recycle of PET bottles in Europe grew, the PET industry recognised that recycled PET outlets were reaching saturation and we needed to recycle PET back into food contact packaging. As PET is the only polymer manufactured exclusively to food contact regulatory standards, the PET industry identified PET as the right candidate to lead recycle back to food contact.
 
In Europe there were little or no harmonised regulations and some countries even banned the use of recycled plastics in food contact app

05 2009 PET Fights Back

 
Most readers of PETPlanet have a connection with the PET value chain and rely on some aspect of PET for their livelihood.
Here are some questions. Do any or all of the following annoy you ...?

    • Opening newspapers and magazines and reading misinformation such as cartons/PLA/etc are more natural and better than PET? Or being told that we shouldn’t buy water bottled in PET because it harms the environment?

     

04 2009 The Impossible Strategy for PET Recyclers

Producers of virgin PET in Europe buy their raw materials to an industry specification and at a price that is related to the price of oil and the supply/demand balances of the materials. This means that PET producers in every European country will pay roughly the same price for their requirements – related to published contract prices.
 
This is not the case for PET recyclers. They source their raw materials (baled PET bottles) from every country i

02 2009 Petcore in 2009

In common with much of industry, 2009 is forecast to be a difficult year for the PET value chain, from raw materials supply through to recycling. Petcore is very aware of the extra pressures on our members and associates whilst we work to facilitate the increase in collection and recycling of PET containers. This has to be seen against a background of downward pressures on PET prices and their consequential effect on recycling margins.
 
The PET market is still dynamic and Petcore welcomes innovation. There a

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